PT Usha Unhappy With New Delhi As Venue For Federation Cup

Indian track queen PT Usha slammed the organisers of the Federation Cup, an Olympic qualification event, for having it in New Delhi, the country's most polluted city.

"I am not happy with the venue. Delhi is too dusty and polluted. All athletes are training with their heads and faces covered, how will they get oxygen?" Usha told NDTV, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. "They could have had this event at  another venue or another time"

Over the last couple of weeks, the National Air Quality Index in the area of the venue has in fact gone from "poor" to "very poor". Add to the scorching heat, even though the main competitions happened in the evening only.

"Because they are training in Patiala or nearby, this is the best option," said national athletics coach Bahadur Singh.  "We can't keep them in high altitude or something, this is a good thing. And you have seen everyone has given a good performance." 

A few national records have been broken, but in the three days of the competition, India have managed to book one Olympic berth, that by Sudha Singh in the 3000m steeplechase event

Star discus thrower Krishna Poonia, who made a comeback to the sport in this competition after a long injury layoff, also felt a less polluted venue could have been picked. "Delhi is such a big city compared to Patiala where we train, it's certainly much more polluted," the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist told NDTV. "If it would have been elsewhere, it would be better for sure."

Adding to the problem of heat and dust, was the poor maintenance of the iconic venue. The warm up area was dusty, and exposed in parts, cables were laid out in a messy manner, and chairs were dirty.

Officials were of the opinion that if the athletes had expressed their apprehensions earlier, perhaps an alternate venue could've been picked. But given the fact that Delhi's killer air has made headlines for months now, and has even prompted an odd-even traffic system in the city, should the organisers not thought of this earlier themselves?

It's still the beginning of the athletics season and hopefully there will be a few more qualifications from track and field for the Rio Olympics.

While some may dismiss factors such as heat, dust and pollution as minor, the fact is that the olympics are now less than 100 days away, and at this point absolutely no stone can be left unturned.